Ajax Simplified

Ajax can become complex as far as implementation, but the concept is quite simple.

Performing the Server-Side Calculations and Operations

As for what you must do to handle the services at the server side, that's
entirely up to your choice of Web application language and choice of
database, among other things. Use what you know best, or take the time
to learn other Web application languages you suspect will ease the burden
of writing server-side code.

Optimizing Your Application Performance

JavaScript code optimization is an art, but it always helps to compress
your JavaScript code. For example, indent all your code for
readability, but when you're finished, the tabs and spaces are simply more
bytes users will have to download. You can squeeze your JavaScript
down to fewer bytes with one of many JavaScript compressors. The Dojo
library is compressed for you, and Dojo provides a compressor you can
use on your own code. You even can compress your code on-line via Dojo
Shrinksafe (see Resources).

Finally, keep an eye on what you manage at the server side and what you manage
at the client side. Depending on what your Ajax Web application does,
you may find some performance gains by storing certain information in
cookies, or you may speed up performance by storing the information at
the server side. Use common sense and experiment between the two approaches
to see which performs best.

It's not always easy to build a killer Ajax application, but hopefully
this tutorial on the simplicity of how Ajax works will
encourage you to give it a try. Now grab a toolkit and go!